Last night Liz Brown, City Councilwoman at Large, questioned Jim Haley, city deputy controller, about the Cable Fund. She wanted to know where the money came from, how it was spent and whether a greater share of it could go to the general fund to balance the budget. She asked questions of accountability concerning the fund.

Background. Verizon and Comcast both pay a franchise fee to the city based on state law. The income is then divided into two parts, one of which goes directly into the city general fund, the other portion, forty percent, goes to a dedicated fund to support public access, government access, college access, etc. Of that money, most goes to the library for maintenance of their studios. An additional chunk goes to the city for administration of the part that goes to support public access. A small amount goes to a variety of schools and other organizations in Fort Wayne that produce video for the system, North Side and Precious Blood School come to mind, each with long running video educational programs that yield student productions and have helped many a kid get a job at one of the local TV stations or admission to telecommunications programs at various universities. There are production companies in town staffed by adults who were kids at a local school when they got their start with video.

So, Liz wants more of the fund for the government, less for the kids.

Background. The fund accumulates over a million each year. Initially, all of the fund was to pay for cable related purposes. It was envisioned as providing public access to TV in a day when there were three stations in town and citizens had no voice. The first year of the fund’s existence it helped start studios at St. Francis, Snider, IPFW, and the library. Win Moses, however, wanted all of the money for city government uses. He pushed council to mend the ordinance and divert all of the money into the general fund. There was a fight, three times the measure was brought to council and twice it was defeated, the third time a compromise was crafted which created the 60-40 split, the city taking 60 per cent of the top.

Now Liz wants the rest. She brought it up at council last night. Apparently, she does not know that there are five members of the board, including a city council member sitting just across the table from her. Apparently, she is not aware that council has two appointees, the mayor three appointees to the cable board. Apparently, she is not aware of the enabling ordinance, the state law, the funding formula or where the money has been going and the strict oversight the board operates vis a vis the grants.

Liz just wants more money. And, I thought conservatives were about reducing the size of government.

She did bring up a good point. She said there is a million dollar in the fund the city badly needs to pay for services.

She should have applied that same logic when she voted to spend a million dollars, plus interest, to tear up Calhoun Street and redo it, to very, very little gain.

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